Bangs (often erroneously referred to as the Bangs) was an American punk rock and riot grrrl band from Olympia, Washington.
Career
Formation
The band was formed in 1997 by the guitarist Sarah Utter, after recruiting her high-school friend Jesse Fox on drums and Maggie Vail. Vail had to learn how to play bass guitar to be in the band, as the only instruments she played before were drums, guitar, cello and clarinet.
Touring
Bangs toured with and/or played shows with bands including Sleater-Kinney, the Gossip, Unwound, Blonde Redhead, The Makers, The Donnas, Shannon Wright, Murder City Devils and Karp. Vail also played bass guitar in Frenchie and the German Girls, and sang backing vocals in the famous party-band Gene Defcon. Utter played in one of the last incarnations of Witchypoo, as well as Plastique.
Fox left the band after a long U.S. tour, and Bangs went through a succession of drummers (Heather Dunn,) before settling with Olympia's Peter David Connelly. They recorded their last EP, Call and Response, in a frigidly cold farmhouse basement with the engineer Justin Trosper of Unwound.
Although the band had associations with the riot grrrl movement (Vail's sister is Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail), Bangs did not regard itself as a riot grrrl band and preferred the term "rock band", crediting The Go-Go's, The Ramones, and Cheap Trick as inspirations.